The release of Star Wars, later given the retronym Episode IV - A New Hope, in 1977 coincided almost exactly with the advent of modern roleplaying games. The science-fiction game Traveller was also released in 1977, and ever since then, people have been inventing their own characters and stories in galaxies far, far away.
In the intervening decades, there have been several officially licensed Star Wars RPGs from Wizards of the Coast as well as Fantasy Flight Games. These games are fantastic, but they are far from the only ways to scratch that Star Wars itch. Star Wars has had an enormous impact on the landscape of modern sci-fi, and there are dozens of independent RPGs that will doubtlessly appeal to Star Wars fans.
10 Uncharted Worlds By Sean Gomes Does Faction Politics As Well As Rougish Combat
First published in 2015, Uncharted Worlds is a Powered by the Apocalypse game by Sean Gomes. It eschews traditional PbtA playbooks in favor of a more customizable career system, with players picking two Careers and one Origin to flesh out their character's abilities. It names Mass Effect and Farscape as its biggest influences, but its not hard to see some Star Wars DNA throughout the game's rules and artwork. It also features a robust faction and debt system, allowing for complicated space politics. A second edition is currently in development.
9 Galactic 2e By Riley Rethal Is A Collaborative Storytelling Masterpiece
The second edition of Riley Rethal's galactic 2e was released on May 4, or Star Wars Day, 2021. It uses the Belonging Outside Belonging system, a GMless, narrative-based system that uses a token-exchange economy instead of dice.
It tells the story of "rebellion, relationships, and war among the stars." Each player controls not only their character but also an aspect of the world. galactic 2e's release was accompanied by a community design jam that produced tons of additional content.
8 Scum & Villainy By Stras Acimovic And John LeBoeuf-Little Is All About The Heists
This game, based on the framework introduced in John Harper's Blades in the Dark, follows a crew of smugglers, bounty hunters, or rebels in their struggle under, or against, the mighty Hegemony. Scum and Villainy features fast-paced gameplay with lots of opportunities for non-chronological storytelling, as players can activate flashbacks or reveal hidden pieces of gear. It wears its Star Wars influence on its sleeve, but takes just as much from Dune and Star Trek to create a fully-fledged sci-fi setting ripe for exploration.
7 Rebel Scum Is Lighthearted And Passionate
Rebel Scum: An Antifascist Space Opera proudly declares both its aesthetic inspirations and its political claim. It pits a crew of rebels against the Killstar Republik, a thinly veiled Empire analog. It uses a unique dice system called the Polymorph system, which uses variable dice sizes and target numbers for each stat to create a huge variety between playbooks. The book's art direction is designed to evoke classic Star Wars action figures, and the character sheet is modeled after toy packaging.
6 Satellite / Primary By Blake Stone Is Small, Quiet, And Tragic
Fans of Star Wars' quieter moments will find something beautiful in satellite / primary. It is a two-player epistolary game in which the players send letters, texts, or chat messages back and forth to tell the story. The characters are lovers separated by lightyears of space, each tasked with watching as a "world-killing horror" approaches their galaxy. It is a deeply personal game, inviting players to put themselves into a very vulnerable place.
5 Space Aces By P0rthos47 Is As Light As They Come
Space Aces bills itself as a "rules-lite no-prep sci-fi RPG." It seeks to blend the emergent storytelling of PbtA games with the danger of Old School Rennaissance, or OSR, games. Anyone who gets intimidated by seeing massive tomes in the RPG section of their local game store can rest easy, because Space Aces: The Original Sheets fits on a single business card. One side has the character sheet and rules, while the other features a surprisingly detailed mission generator.
4 Impulse Drive By Adrian Thoen Is Robust And Ecovative
Impulse Drive is a Powered by the Apocalypse sci-fi system "about making a living on the fringe of civilized space." While Uncharted Worlds avoids the traditional PbtA playbook system, Impulse Drive uses it to full effect.
It features highly evocative playbook archetypes that cover all the classic ground Star Wars fans would expect. The Scoundrel is "a down on their luck con artist," while The Mystic is "a wise religious figure or member of an ancient order of knights."
3 Alone Among The Stars By Takuma Okada Is Perfect For Solo Play
Sometimes it can be tough to pull together a full group for a night of RPGs. Alone Among the Stars gives an opportunity to sit down and play through a sci-fi story all alone. It uses a standard deck of card, a six-sided die, and a short set of rules to generate wonderous alien planets to explore, and encourages the player to record their experiences in their "ship's log," preferably a small notebook. There are numerous other variations on this theme, such as Alone in the Ancient City or the collaborative Together Among the Stars.
2 Ghost Orbit By Bad Quail Games Follows The Grunt Workers Of The Galaxy
Fans of another sci-fi franchise will feel right at home in Ghost Orbit, as this game takes a lot of inspiration from Alien. But the clunky technology, harsh world, and strange alien threats of Ghost Orbit will also satisfy Star Wars fans who love the rough edges the galaxy has to offer.
The rules are written as if they are the in-universe document welcoming new recruits to the "Industrial Workers of the World Spacer's Union," an organization representing space workers in their delves into hulking wrecks and unknown space stations.
1 Orbital Blues By SoulMuppet Publishing Is All About The Sad Cowboys
Star Wars has a wide range of influences, but among them is the Western. This facet of Star Wars has been highlighted in recent years with shows like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and Orbital Blues is a perfect way to capture this feeling. It puts a cast of intergalactic cowboys and outlaws in a world of "hyper-capitalism and a cut-throat gig economy." It features a beautifully retro aesthetic and encourages every character to have a dedicated theme song. \